This invention relates to a fog lighting system for a vehicle. More particularly, this invention concerns a fog lighting system with indirect lighting, wherein the beams projected by the specially provided lamps or fog lights are so oriented as to supply a better visibility through the fog.
The fog lights usually employed in motor vehicles, as is well known, are, normally, a couple of white or colored low beam headlights, and they aim exclusively at penetrating or piercing the mist which, being between the motor vehicle driver and the route, limits the visibility and hides possible obstacles from the driver's view.
Such fog lights differ from one another by the color or the type of lamp employed, but they all have the common feature of directing the light beam before the vehicle towards the route thereof, thus giving rise to an opalescent wall made of the illuminated fog in front of the driver.
As fog is made of tiny droplets of water suspended in the air, when a direct light beam, e.g., from the headlights of a motor vehicle, impinges on them, said droplets reflect the light, thus giving rise to an illuminated barrier in front of the driver, which barrier is transverse to the route of the motor vehicle. Such barrier prevents the driver from viewing beyond it in order to ascertain the presence of any obstacle on the road.
As a consequence, the attempt at lighting the route directly ahead of the vehicle makes less visible, in the presence of fog, the obstacles immediately close to the motor vehicle itself.